So I’m a Spider, So What Vol. 3 — Part 2 of 8

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Part 2 of 8

Activate Magic Warfare, Mental Warfare, and Wyrm Power simultaneously.

Begin constructing magic spells.

Apparently getting the message, the fire dragon covers its body with flames.

“Fire Dragon” must be the evolved form of the “Fire Wyrm” skill.

So I guess it makes sense that it can use the abilities of Fire Wyrm, too.

One of which is Flame Wrap, which is acquired at Fire Wyrm level 8.

It’s an advanced version of the Fire Wyrm level-2 ability Heat Wrap, literally wreathing the user in an intense blaze.

On top of that, the heat generated increases the user’s physical capabilities.

Apparently, the fire dragon recognizes me as a strong enemy that isn’t to be trifled with.

Neither of us underestimates the other.

The curtain opens on a fierce, no-holds-barred battle.

The fire dragon spits a fireball.

It seems to be testing the waters rather than engaging in a serious attack.

Still, considering I’m especially weak to fire, it could easily wipe me out in one blow if I take a direct hit.

Not to mention, even this casual shot is on par with a fire wyrm’s full-power fireballs.

I evade it with all my might.

Thanks to the combination of Hit and Probability Super-Correction, it’s not easy to dodge.

Even the dragon’s weakest attacks require every bit of my Enhancement and Evasion skills to overcome.

I have to make good use of Thought Acceleration and Foresight.

As the fire dragon spits another fireball, it starts closing the distance between us.

The fireball is just a distraction—the real attack follows close behind.

Bending its long, snakelike body, the monster whips its enormous tail at me.

This simple physical attack is augmented with the power of those flames, an effect that could easily prove fatal to me.

I narrowly avoid this attack as well.

The fire on its tail grazes my body.

That alone is enough to reduce my HP slightly.

If it weren’t for Thought Acceleration giving me time to recognize the fire dragon’s approach and Foresight predicting its movements, it would’ve been a much closer call.

For now, my Evasion combo seems to ever so slightly outmatch the fire dragon’s Hit/Probability combo.

But things aren’t looking good.

No matter how long I fix my Evil Eyes on it, the fire dragon isn’t becoming paralyzed.

The Cursed Evil Eye is reducing its HP and SP by the tiniest amount, but it’s having little effect on its stats.

Both abilities are probably butting heads with the dragon’s incredibly high resistance.

With enough time, I think the Evil Eyes should still take effect, but it’s not like the fire dragon is going to politely wait around until that happens.

I barely manage to avoid claws that fly at me shortly after the dragon’s tail recedes.

Feeling cautious after I avoid all its attacks, the fire dragon backs off a little.

I have only two things going for me at the moment.

One is that the fire dragon isn’t starting out at full health thanks to Mother’s attack.

Its HP has been cut nearly in half, and while it has stocked up MP as well as SP thanks to Gluttony, those stocks have been reduced quite a bit.

And since my Cursed Evil Eye is shaving off its HP faster than its HP Rapid Recovery skill can counter, it won’t be healing anymore.

The other silver lining is that it doesn’t have its army.

The fire dragon’s skills are mostly enhanced versions of the fire wyrm’s.

Naturally, it can do anything a fire wyrm could.

Specifically, I’m thinking of the skill the fire wyrm used to back me into a corner and cause me all kinds of pain.

Command, an advanced version of the Leadership skill the fire wyrm had.

A skill that can control its minions with even greater power.

Luckily, the dragon’s soldiers have all been wiped out by Mother’s attack.

This is a pure one-on-one fight.

Thank you, O Great Mother!

However, even after taking all that into account, the fire dragon still has the advantage.

I fire a Poison Shot as I dodge the fire dragon’s attack, but it disappears before connecting with the dragon’s body.

The effect of Imperial Scales must have weakened the magic’s structure before it even came into contact with the dragon’s flame-covered body.

And once it did, it was weakened enough that the Flame Wrap simply evaporated it.

The fire dragon didn’t need to take any evasive action. Its defenses were enough to nullify the Poison Shot either way.

This monster has attack power that means instant death for me on top of defense that won’t budge from any weak attacks.

And its speed is higher than mine.

If it feels like it, the fire dragon probably could use its speed plus its Evasion and Probability Super-Correction skills to avoid Poison Shot, too.

Okay, this officially sucks.

Thanks to my Cursed Evil Eye, the dragon’s HP is slowly decreasing.

But honestly, there’s no way I can bring this huge number down to 0 with Evil Eyes alone.

I would collapse from exhaustion long before then.

I’m not expecting much in the way of stat decreases, either.

I mean, it is working. A little bit.

But the speed at which its stats are dropping is much slower than when I use it on other monsters.

It’ll be a long time before the effects of the stat reduction are actually noticeable, too.

I’m sure I would end up dead before then.

Paralyzing Evil Eye is my best hope for a reversal.

But then again, it’s probably best not to get my hopes up.

That’s because the fire dragon’s Status Condition Resistance skill has just gone up to level 2.

Hopefully, it had almost all the proficiency it needed already and simply got lucky. If not, then that means its resistance will go up faster than I can inflict paralysis.

I don’t think it can ward off the effects completely, but it’s probably too much to wish for the fire dragon to become completely paralyzed.

There goes another move I can’t count on.

As I rule out more possibilities, my remaining options are getting real sparse.

The most effective possible method at this point is to clobber the dragon with enough poison to overwhelm its resistance.

My Deadly Spider Poison is the most lethal attack method of any of my skills.

Even with Status Condition Resistance, I doubt it could get through that without a scratch.

But one hit probably won’t be enough to do it in.

I can’t just throw a lucky punch and hope for the best.

I need to be absolutely sure my attacks will hit dead-on.

But Flame Wrap poses a problem.

That fire is so fierce that it whittled down my HP by grazing me.

I have to break through that somehow, or I won’t be able to hit with enough firepower.

My attacks will just burn up, and me along with them.

Even as my thoughts race, my body brain keeps desperately avoiding the fire dragon’s effects.

It’s so intense that I give up on attacking completely and concentrate on dodging.

Even when the magic brain counterattacks with spells, the combo of Imperial Scales and Flame Wrap brushes them right off.

Even Poison Fog, which I used to massacre so many monsters in the battle against the fire wyrm, would be useless here.

The fire dragon leaps into the air.

Seeing that, I quickly adjust my Poison Synthesis settings.

Almost immediately afterward, flames burst out from the fire dragon’s mouth.

An immense breath attack torches the ground.

It’s Inferno Breath, a level-10 Fire Dragon ability.

This wide-range destructive force blows away the nearby earth, melting it and turning the area into a new magma ocean.

I jump in the nick of time, invoking Weak Poison with Poison Synthesis at the same time.

I synthesize the largest amount I can and take shelter inside the giant blob of poison.

Since I set the damage points to the minimum, my HP doesn’t take much damage.

The moment I entered the poison ball and the moment the breath attack covered the ground were more or less at the same exact time.

The aftermath alone begins to evaporate the weak poison.

Even though I wasn’t hit directly, my HP still drops.

I stretch a thread up to the ceiling and frantically escape before the poison evaporates completely.

Then I flee along the ceiling without looking back.

Naturally, the fire dragon chases after me, but at least I escaped the newly formed magma.

A fireball is bearing down on me.

Kicking off the ceiling, I drop into the air just as the fireball impacts the spot where I was only moments ago.

Thrown into open space, my body is pulled toward the ground by gravity.

As if it was waiting for that moment, the fire dragon swoops in with its fangs bared.

I pull on the thread I attached to the ceiling, thin enough that the dragon would have difficulty seeing it.

At the same time, I synthesize Deadly Spider Poison imbued with the Paralysis effect.

The fire dragon passes directly beneath me.

Then it goes into a tailspin in midair.

The instant the dragon’s mouth closes, my enhanced vision sees it twist its body to narrowly avoid swallowing the poison.

My bait-and-switch poison strategy, which has ushered so many Middle Stratum monsters into their graves, has been defeated.

At least it bought me enough time to get back down to the ground.

But that was a big mistake.

The spot I land on is surrounded by magma, with nowhere to run.

I’m a perfect sitting duck for the fire dragon.

It wasn’t just attacking me with Inferno Breath. There was a deeper strategy that involved destroying the ground itself to change the flow of the magma.

No matter where I turn, there’s nowhere to go except up above me, where the fire dragon has righted itself and is hurtling straight toward me.

I can see in its eyes that it won’t let me escape.

I’m trapped on all sides.

The fire dragon unleashes another Inferno Breath.

Roaring flames engulf my entire body without the slightest resistance.

Then, just like that, my body burns up into nothing, evaporating without leaving so much as ash.

JULIUS

Hyrince has returned.

I just found out yesterday.

I was eager to talk to him right away, but there’s a time and place for everything.

It took a while before Hyrince could meet with me.

I was so anxious about it yesterday, I couldn’t sit still.

Today, I can finally speak to Hyrince face-to-face.

I’m waiting on the edge of my seat in the room where we agreed to meet.

“Looks like I’ve kept you waiting awhile.”

Hyrince enters the room at last.

He looks a bit thinner than the burly man I remember.

“Shun…I’m sorry!”

Hyrince bows his head deeply.

“Julius shouldn’t have been the one to die. He should’ve survived, not me.”

“What do you mean…?”

I can barely speak, my mouth running dry.

“It was this…”

“What is it?”

Hyrince holds out a tattered red feather.

“It’s a phoenix feather. An item that makes the holder temporarily invincible.”

“What happened exactly?”

“It was the hero, Julius, who was supposed to have it. But he said it would be better for me to have it, since I’m the tank, so he gave it to me…”

“You mean…”

“Yeah. I’m only alive because of this item. It’s lost its effect now, but…Julius should have been the one to have it, not me. Julius was the one who should’ve survived.”

Hyrince lowers his head again as if in penitence.

“Hyrince, please raise your head. There’s no reason for you to apologize.”

“No, I…”

“Hyrince, I’m sure my brother forced you to take it against your will, didn’t he? I bet he said something like, ‘I’m not going to die—don’t worry.’”

“Ha-ha… You really are his brother. That’s exactly right.”

Hyrince looks up with a bitter smile.

“‘I’m not going to die. Since you’re our shield user, your chances of dying are much higher, right? So it’s better if you take it, Hyrince.’ No matter how much I argued with him, he refused to take it.”

My lips wobble at Hyrince’s horrible imitation.

Steadying myself, I force out the words I need to ask.

“Hyrince, please tell me…about my brother’s last moments.”

“All right.”

Hyrince straightens up.

He sits facing me across the table.

“But just so you know, I might not be able to tell you much. It pains me to admit it, but I didn’t understand much of what was happening even at the time…”

And so, Hyrince tells me from start to finish about how the war broke out.

Julius and his party were guarding one of the fortresses.

Refusing to stay holed up inside, he went out to directly join the fray.

With his incredible range of combat skills, he defeated several elite members of the demon army in battle before finally entering one-on-one combat with the enemy general.

The general was strong but not as strong as my brother the hero.

Julius magnificently defeated his opponent, then advised the rest of the demon army to surrender.

“And that was when it happened. When that…thing…showed up.”

The “thing” in question was a white little girl.

“Just a pure-white girl. There’s no other way to describe it.”

The girl walked onto the battlefield as if taking a leisurely stroll.

Her eyes were closed.

“That’s the last thing I remember. Next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground. Looking back, I don’t think I was out for very long…but by the time I woke up, it was all over.”

When Hyrince came to his senses, all that remained of his friends were their clothing and equipment.

It was as if the people themselves had simply disappeared.

“I think I know what it was, though. A Rot Attack.”

“Rot Attack…”

“Yeah. They call it the attribute that governs death. Anyone hit with a Rot Attack will become dust and perish.”

Is that kind of thing really possible?

My brother Julius was the hero, the strongest human alive.

And he was turned into dust…?

That’s impossible.

And yet, that’s exactly what Hyrince says happened in my brother’s final moments.

“I can’t believe it…”

As I sink into silence, Hyrince produces something from his pocket.

“That’s…the one my brother always wore.”

“Yeah. I don’t think he ever told you, but this was your mother’s last gift to Julius before she died.”

Hyrince hands the object to me.

It’s a pure-white scarf.

“I’m sorry. That was all I could bring back with me.”

“Not at all. Thank you very much.”

I can’t say anything else.

My vision starts to blur.

I remember the first time I saw my older brother.

I was still a baby then.

My brother came to the nursery room with a few attendants.

He kept looking between Sue and me, tears streaming from his eyes.

That was the only time I ever saw my brother cry.

He murmured something as he patted our heads, then left the room.

At the time, I didn’t know this world’s language.

So I didn’t understand my brother’s words.

Even now, I don’t know what he said.

But I think he must have come to some kind of decision at that moment.

Later, I learned that his and my mother had passed away the day before.

To be honest, knowing that my mother made this white scarf doesn’t carry that much weight for me.

I mean, I never even met my mother.

But my brother was different.

I’m sure that for him, our mother was an important person who could never be replaced.

Losing his beloved parent at a young age and learning that he had to fight as a hero…

I wonder what kind of decision my brother made in the midst of all that suffering.

“Nice to meet you. I’m your big brother Julius. I might not look it, but I’m the hero.”

I clearly remember my brother’s smile that second time we met, our first real interaction.

His smile surprised me. It was so composed for a child around grade-school age.

If you include my previous life, I was theoretically the older one, but I remember thinking I could never smile like that.

It was a smile that seemed to be hiding something deep underneath.

“You’re pretty clever, Schlain. Maybe you could be a good politician when you grow up.”

“Sue, don’t hang off Schlain so much.”

“You’ve got talent with a sword, too, Schlain. How about it? Want to join me someday? Ah, Sue, don’t glare at me like that. Fine, fine…you can come, too.”

“Hey, Schlain. I hear you have a girlfriend now? So you call each other by nicknames and everything, huh? Can I start calling you Shun, too, then?”

“Shun. I know Sue’s cute and all, but don’t spoil her too much, okay?”

“Shun, our father is very kind, you know. It’s simply that his position as a king comes before his family. He’s doing his best to fulfill his duties to his kingdom. Try to understand, okay?”

“Shun, if anything happens, just talk to Leston. He’s always in the castle anyway. He’s got the most time on his hands of anyone in our family, so I’m sure he’ll help you out.”

“That’s just how our eldest brother is. He might’ve lost sight of himself a little bit, but he still cares about our kingdom just as much as I do. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“If you ask me, Hyrince is getting to the age where he should be thinking about marrying and carrying on his bloodline. But I’ve never heard him mention it, so I’m a little worried… Me? If I got married, I wouldn’t be able to give my spouse anything in return. Why marry if it’d just make both parties unhappy?”

“My master? Yeah, that person’s not human.”

“Heh-heh-heh. With my Evasion skill, your snowballs will never hit m— Oof! Hey, Sue, that’s against the rules! Ow, ow… Sue! That’s not snow! I told you, no throwing rocks! You’ll hurt someone!”

“The hero is humanity’s greatest hope. So I won’t ever lose. I swear it.”

Memories of Julius flood my mind.

My older brother was always smiling.

A smile so full of kindness that it brought peace of mind to all who saw it.

To me, my brother will always be the hero.

Am I really supposed to succeed him in that role?

I don’t know if I can do it.

But I can’t abandon the goal my brother was pursuing just because I don’t have confidence in myself.

“A dream’s a good thing to have. Some people might laugh at you or say it’s impossible. But all you have to do is keep chasing your own goal. A world where everyone can laugh and live in peace… I’ll keep on chasing that ideal, even until the day I die.”

I know I can be naive.

But my brother was even more so.

Still, I want to carry on those naive ideals.

I doubt I’ll ever become as good a hero as Julius was.

I can’t fight purely for world peace like he did.

Half my motivation comes from fulfilling the obligations that come with the Hero title.

But now, I think the other half comes from my true feelings.

“Shun…no, Hero Schlain.”

Hyrince speaks to me in a different tone.

“I wasn’t able to protect Julius. I’m a failure as a shield. But if you can settle for such a pathetic tank, please allow me to serve as the shield bearer for the new hero.”

“Hyrince…”

“Since I couldn’t protect Julius, let me protect you instead.”

“Thank you, Hyrince. I would be honored to work with you.”

Hyrince and I exchange a firm handshake.

Instead of trying to save the world, I’m carrying on my brother’s will to do so.

No true hero would think that way, I’m sure.

I’m nothing but an impure imitation of my brother Julius.

But that’s all right.

This is how I’ve found my resolve as a hero.

Even Hyrince doesn’t know the identity of the “white girl” who defeated my brother.

Apparently, no one has ever seen her in any previous battles.

Hyrince speculated that she could be a very high-ranking demon who usually doesn’t participate in combat.

Or that she might even be the Demon Lord herself.

If so, as the new hero, I’ll have to face her someday.

Even if that’s not the case, I still won’t be running away from her.

My brother, the hero, was a wonderful person who pursued his ideals.

Crumbling into dust is definitely not an ending he deserved.

I’m sure his last moments were full of regret that he was killed before he could accomplish his goals.

Or maybe he didn’t even have time to think about that.

Just like Hyrince passed out with no idea of what was going on, my brother might have died before he realized what was happening.

I want to clear away those regrets.

More than anything, I know I can never forgive that girl.

“So it might still be some time before you begin work as the hero?”

“Yeah. The Church still needs to determine the new saint, so I think it won’t be until after that stuff gets set up.”

“I see.”

“Sue…I’m sure you know this, but once I start working as the hero, we can’t be by each other’s sides like we always used to be.”

“Mm-hmm. I knew you would say that.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize. I am not a child anymore.”

“Right. You’re a strong adult, I know that. But I can’t bring you with me. I don’t want to put you in danger.”

“I know.”

“It’s selfish of me, I know. I’m sorry.”

“As I said, you don’t need to apologize.”

“Okay. You should just keep enjoying yourself at the academy until graduation. You’ll be safe there.”

“I suppose.”

“Even when I do start working as the hero, I’ll try to see you whenever I can. Just like Julius did.”

“Brother, are you going to try to avenge Julius?”

“Yeah. I don’t know if I can, but I have to try.”

“Either way, I don’t think you need to worry about that for a while.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You’ll know soon enough.”

“I see… All right. I’ll try not to think about that for now.”

“Good.”

“All right, I’d better go. Good night.”

“Very well. Good-bye, Brother.”

THE HERO’S MASTER

It is time for my daily magic power control practice.

I cycle the magical energy through my body. Refining it, increasing its density.

However, I have been unable to concentrate well of late, so the circulation is imperfect.

In these past few years, I have felt no small amount of impediment due to my age, but this current condition stems from a different cause.

“Master. There’s still a lot of postwar work to be done, so please don’t slip away on me now! And please get rid of all that crazy magic power! Are you trying to blow this whole place off the map?!”

One of my particularly fussy students has discovered me.

“I am a mage not a secretary, you know.”

“Mage or not, you are in the service of the court, so at least write a document or two once in a while, please!”

“Do not speak such foolishness. A master’s job is the job of his disciples. You are a mage of the court as well, so surely you can take care of such matters on your own?”

“You’re the one saying foolish stuff, old man. As the Renxandt Empire’s head court mage, you can’t slack off.”

My fool disciple lifts up my body, still in a meditating position, carrying me away against my will.

Where is your respect for your master?

Truly, such an imbecile I have for a disciple.

“Master. You wouldn’t be thinking something rude about me right now, would you?”

“If you realize that, then you must surely realize your actions are deserving of unkind thoughts. This is good. You may be a fool, but at least you are an observant fool.”

“You just wanted to call me a fool, didn’t you?”

My foolish disciple sighs dramatically.

“All my disciples are fools. The fool who comes crying to me over paperwork. The fool who becomes a commanding officer despite lacking any motivation. The fool who fails to understand magic yet pretends to be an adult. I have shed my heart’s blood to teach you all, yet not one of you fools has surpassed me yet.”

“Well, sure. You’re the strongest mage in the world, aren’t you, Master? We can’t really surpass that very easily.”

“Harrumph! ‘Strongest mage in the world,’ indeed. The strongest human mage, perhaps. But there are those in this world who far surpass me in power. That master, for example…”

The image of the one whose mastery of the occult was beyond understanding is still clearly etched in my mind.

I have never once forgotten the divine appearance of the person whose power approached godhood.

There are some creatures in this world, like that master, who would likely never be surpassed by mere humans.

“What? No way. There can’t be any creatures that surpass you, Master! You didn’t even break a sweat defeating that demon general, remember?”

True enough, in the war when all those demons attacked at once, I was able to take down their commander.

However, this brings me little pride.

“Demons are just humans with a little more hair. Pathetic. Humans and demons, crushed together in one tiny vessel. We do not understand how small and insignificant our lives truly are.”

After seeing that master, I find little distinction between humans and demons.

It can be said that demons boast stronger stats than humans, but from my point of view, the difference is virtually insignificant.

“Master. I know I’ve said this before, but don’t say things like that to anyone but us, all right? You are free to admire that master and debase yourself if you really wish, but you remain the strongest mage.”

“Yes, of that I am well aware.”

“I hope so. You talk about that master to anyone who will listen, it seems. There are some elder folk who were directly hurt by it, so please try to refrain from mentioning it, all right?”

“As I said, I understand. Do not trouble me with such mundane concerns.”

“In fact, you yourself were near fatally injured back then, were you not? I have a hard time understanding how you could still admire it in spite of all that.”

“I was conceited back then. But that master truly opened my eyes to the fact that there is always someone stronger than oneself. I became aware of the smallness of my existence. I am thankful from the bottom of my heart for my encounter with that master.”

It was sixteen years ago when I met that master, while I was at the peak of my confidence.

I truly believed I was the strongest in all the world and that I had truly mastered magic.

But that encounter neatly shattered my overgrown ego.

“I was a fool back then. So anyone who cannot share my enlightenment now is a fool as well.”

“Yes, yes.”

My foolish disciple is barely listening now.

“Especially foolish are the disciples who cannot understand this and die before me.”

Several of my disciples were killed in this battle. Mere children, far younger than I.

Among them was my fool disciple who was manipulated into misjudging his own abilities by the title of Hero, and thus hastened his own death.

The fool disciple who held the naive desire to save the entire world with his meager skills.

Saving something so large can be accomplished only if one is willing to become, perhaps, a god.

A single individual can save only so many, no matter how strong they might be.

We must focus on trying to save what is visible to us, and no more.

That is the most we mere humans can hope for.

But that fool disciple never understood that, even in the end.

Why do I go on trying to teach these foolish disciples?

Only in the hopes of giving them the power to protect themselves, if nothing else.

But as soon as they gain even a little power, they also grow arrogant.

They believe they can save others, and in the end, they cannot even protect themselves.

“Disturbing my concentration during magical power practice is already insolent enough. Fool disciples should never die before their master.”

The fool disciple carrying me makes no response to my doleful murmur.

DRAGON SLAYER

The battle over, the fire dragon looks down at the magma sea it created.

Its monster lackeys are present, but no sign of the spider.

The monsters from its army have Heat Nullification, but the spider definitely didn’t.

There’s no way it could have survived a direct hit from the fire dragon’s strongest breath attack.

That’s what you think, idiot!

A giant blob of poison appears above the fire dragon.

This poison is nothing like the Weak Poison I wrapped myself in before.

It’s my lethal Deadly Spider Poison, mixed with the maximum amount of Paralysis.

The deadly poison lands a direct hit on the dragon, its defenses down after seeing an apparent victory.

The huge glob of poison breaks through the Flame Wrap and bites into the dragon’s body.

That’s when I throw in a full-powered scythe attack!

The perfectly timed blow lands right in the gap where the flames have been momentarily extinguished by the deadly poison.

I pour all my strength into that one attack.

It’s a double combo of Deadly Poison Attack and Rot Attack!

The Rot Attack shreds the dragon’s hard scales while the poison sinks deep into its body.

My ultimate physical attack is pretty amazing, if I do say so myself.

The fire dragon lets loose a roar of pain and falls into the magma.

I quickly pull myself back up to the ceiling with my thread.

I’m sure the fire dragon was convinced it saw me die.

It must be pretty confused right about now.

But the particulars of how I survived are simple.

For starters, I didn’t get hit by that breath attack.

In fact, I never came down from the ceiling in the first place.

This play was made possible by the Heretic Magic level-6 spell: Phantasm.

It’s one of the trump cards I’ve been hanging on to.

Phantasm is basically a spell that creates hallucinations.

I used the dragon’s momentary panic when it was about to swallow the poison I synthesized to cast the spell on it.

Without an opportunity like that, Heretic Magic could’ve been easily dispelled by Imperial Scales combined with the fire dragon’s high resistance.

To the fire dragon, it must have looked like I dropped to the ground, but I actually just kept clinging to the ceiling.

Then, when it let its guard down thinking the battle was over, I swooped in with the surprise attack.

Even a fire dragon is bound to take a lot of damage from my strongest physical attack.

For a moment, I consider using Phantasm to escape.

But I can’t bring myself to run away again.

Sure, I’ve spent a lot of time in my life as a spider just running away.

But if I keep that up, I’ll be no different from when I ran away from the humans who burned down my home.

To live with pride.

That’s the goal I swore I would attain.

But I haven’t truly regained my pride, even after all this time.

I can’t go on like that.

I am the Ruler of Pride, after all.

I have to live up to that title by living as proudly as I can.

So I won’t run away.

As long as I have the slightest chance of winning, no matter how slim that chance might be, I’ll never give up.

I’m going to defeat this dragon.

And in doing so, I’ll say good-bye to the weakling I was before.

That’s right. I’m better than some irritating dragon.

…?

“Irritating”?

Say what?

I thought I was afraid of the earth dragon. Since when do I think of it as “irritating”?

Huh?

Where is this feeling coming from?

Well, that doesn’t matter right now.

I may have landed a huge hit, but I’m still at a disadvantage here.

I mean, my HP is at 1 now.

I’m surviving only because of Perseverance.

The dragon was whittling down my HP for a while, but the blowback from my big attack was the last nail in the coffin.

Rot Attack is very strong, but it comes at a price.

And that’s not the only damage I took just now.

Even after being extinguished by my poison, the Flame Wrap still inflicted damage on me.

I still have some MP left.

Which means I’m not going to die just yet.

But a single hit from any one of the fire dragon’s attacks is probably enough to do me in.

My decisive strike definitely did a number on the fire dragon, but it’s still got some strength left.

Avoiding the magma, I land on the ground for real this time.

The fire dragon is still sinking into the magma.

Now’s my chance.

I activate my second trump card, the one I’ve been preparing since this battle began.

My MP decreases at an alarming speed.

In my current situation, every point of MP lost means a point closer to death.

But activating this magic is worth the cost.

Don’t you agree, magic brain number one and number two?

Sure do!

Count on it!

See, my Parallel Minds skill leveled up, so I’ve got a new friend: magic brain number two!

Now I’ve got double the brainpower for invoking magic.

Magic brain number two has been preparing this spell all this time, and now it’s ready to use, thanks to the help of magic brain number one.

Now I open thee, Hell Gate!

Immediately, the whole area goes dark.

Even the glow of the magma is swallowed up by the intense darkness rising from the ground.

It’s as if the darkness of hell itself is seeping into this world from below.

It engulfs the magma, the ground, the enormous fire dragon.

The overflowing darkness swallows everything.

Abyss Magic level 1: Hell Gate.

An extremely dark and powerful magic that heralds the opening of hell.

That’s what I unleashed into this world.

The darkness engulfs everything, converges, and abruptly absorbs back into the ground and disappears.

As if it were sealed away.

As if the gates of hell had closed shut once more.

All that remains is the beaten, battered fire dragon and me.

Seriously?

You survived that?

But the fire dragon has precious little HP remaining.

And its MP and SP are virtually gone.

It must have converted them into HP with the help of its skills.

That’s the only way it could possibly have survived Hell Gate.

My own MP is rather low after using Hell Gate, too.

I’m in pretty rough shape myself.

Basically, both of us are struggling to stay on our feet.

The next blow will decide the victor.

The fire dragon’s chosen attack is also its most primitive one.

Namely, a body slam.

Yeah. It’s a good choice.

With virtually no MP or SP, it’s the fire dragon’s most effective means of attack.

And given its enormous size and stats, it should be the winning move.

If it were up against anyone else, that is.

I’m a spider.

What is a spider’s greatest weapon?

Poison? Claws? Fangs?

No, none of the above.

The fire dragon’s body stops.

It’s hit my Utility Thread, imbued with Fire Resistance.

Even with that resistance, of course, I can use it for only a moment in the Middle Stratum.

But that’s all I need.

With its Flame Wrap gone, my thread can stop the fire dragon, even if only for a few seconds.

In that short amount of time, I swing down my scythe.

One of them was destroyed when I used Rot Attack before, but I still have one more left.

And it’s that scythe that strikes the fire dragon with all my strength.

The Divine Voice (temp.) resounds, and the stats disappear from the fire dragon’s Appraisal display, its name changing to “Fire Dragon Corpse.”

Only when I see that do I finally exhale.

My status has been fully recovered with the consecutive level-ups, but mentally, I’m still exhausted.

Once again, it was another tightrope walk of a battle.

The fact that I won seems like something of a miracle.

I mean, any one of that fire dragon’s attacks could’ve killed me in one hit.

Just a graze or an aftershock was enough to put me on the verge of death, y’know?

If it hit me straight on, I’d be dead, Perseverance be damned.

Also, if Parallel Minds hadn’t leveled up right before I ran into the fire dragon, I would’ve been in big trouble.

Now, I have two magic brains.

That’s the only reason I was able to use Abyss Magic, which I could never get to work before.

Actually, to be honest, that was my first time even trying it.

I mean, I gathered from its structure that it was some kind of wide-range annihilation-type magic, but frankly, I’m still a little freaked out by how destructive it was.

Checking out the area, I can tell the ground in a three-hundred-foot radius around me has sunk about fifteen feet lower.

The area where the darkness all converged and got sucked in at the end has become an especially deep hole.

Staring into the opening with Appraisal, I see it’s so deep that it goes outside my detection range.

Does this go through the Middle Stratum right into the Lower Stratum?

I guess I don’t even know if the Lower Stratum is below this area.

Well, looking at this hole, I wouldn’t be surprised if it really does go straight down to hell.

I guess it’s not called Hell Gate for nothing.

I still can’t believe the fire dragon was able to survive that, but I guess it was simply that strong of an opponent.

Well, thanks to that, my level went way up.

Ahhh, but…only up to level 19, huh?

If I just went up one more level, I would’ve been able to evolve now.

So close.

…Oh, crap.

What is it, information brain?

Since our Abyss Magic made the ground sink, magma is starting to flow into it.

What? For real?

Yeah, like actually.

Body brain, let’s grab that fire dragon and get out of here before the magma floods this place.

We’re taking that huge thing with us?!

Of course we are, duh.

Yikes. Don’t blame me if we get sore.

And so, I laboriously escape with the enormous fire dragon corpse in tow.

The magma isn’t moving particularly quickly, but since transporting the fire dragon takes so much time and effort, it ends up being a pretty close call.

Any longer, and we both would’ve met our ends in the magma.

I know, I know—why didn’t I just leave the fire dragon, then? But after all the pains I went to defeating it, it would be downright rude not to eat the thing!

Defeat, eat, and thank you very much!

It’s a package deal, dude!

Whew.

Anyway, body brain, you know the drill. De-scaling time, please.

Wooo. Lucky me.

Guess it’s time for my usual skill check.

All right, let me see here.

It’s important to make sure I thoroughly investigate every skill.

Really, really important.

Why, you ask?

Because I didn’t realize you could imbue Utility Thread with resistances until now!

God, I don’t even wanna talk about this.

I’m such an idiot.

Why would I overlook something so vital?

One of Utility Thread’s effects is Resistance Conferment. As the name implies, it lets me add the effects of any of my resistance skills to my thread.

And that includes Fire Resistance.

There’d be no point in adding things like Poison Resistance to my thread, obviously, but Acid Resistance, for instance, would make dealing with frogs way easier.

I didn’t even notice this Resistance Conferment thing until I was randomly checking through my skills one day.

Talk about a surprise.

I was excited to learn about this effect, sure, but I also couldn’t believe how careless I’d been to miss it in the first place.

Ugh, if I’d known about this sooner, I might’ve been able to use my thread more often!

Still, even adding Fire Resistance doesn’t do much to stop it from burning easily, so I guess it wouldn’t have made that dramatic a difference.

It sure ended up saving my ass this time, though.

And that’s why I’m taking the time to look over my new titles and skills.

Man, dragons really are something else.

I can’t believe you can get a title like this just by defeating a single one.

So what does it do exactly?

Looks like an advanced version of Wyrm Slayer, then.

The skills are the same sort, too.

<Lifeblood: Adds to HP by 100x the number of the skill level. Additionally, growth of this stat at each level-up increases by 10x the skill level.>

Sweet!

Finally, a skill to compensate for my low HP!

I guess Perseverance does help with that, but really, the ideal situation is to have lots of HP in the first place.

For one, there are times like this last fight when I need all my MP for its intended purpose.

Aw, but I think I leveled up before I got that skill, so that’s four levels’ worth of bonus HP lost.

If only title acquisition came before the level-up process, I could’ve done even better for myself in the growth department…

Oh well, nothing I can do about that.

Dragon Power is probably the advanced form of Wyrm Power, right?

That would make it a simple temporary status enhancement skill, which means I’ll have to test out how big the difference is.

This stuff is important. Very important.

I never had a chance to experiment with Abyss Magic, so it ended up being a bit of a trial by fire, but on the whole, I really need to make sure I know exactly what all my skills do.

Ahhh… Abyss Magic.

Really, I should test out what the higher Abyss Magic spells do, but…this stuff is no joke.

I mean, even the level-1 spell was powerful enough to permanently alter the terrain!

So what in the world would even higher levels do?

I have to be careful about wasting MP, too, so it’s not the kind of magic I should be casually throwing around.

No matter how huge it might be, this is still an underground labyrinth. The last thing I need is to cause a cave-in because of some Abyss Magic misfire.

At the moment, given how terrifyingly powerful level 1 was, I’m a little scared to try anything above that.

Unless I run into an enemy so strong that Hell Gate alone won’t be enough, I think I’ll avoid using Abyss Magic level 2 and up, until I get out of the Great Elroe Labyrinth.

Anyway, other than that, a few skills evolved or made new derivations when I leveled up.

Evasion and Hit both created Probability Correction.

And Spatial Maneuvering evolved into Dimensional Maneuvering.

I’ve seen Probability Correction before, on the eels and stuff.

Really, I guess I suspected this might be how the derivation would go, based on the skill organizations of the eel and its evolutionary line.

Both Evasion and Hit reached their max level, so now I just have to keep improving Probability Correction.

That should improve my evasion and hit ratios as well.

Maybe this skill will even improve my luck in general?

Let’s take a moment to pray for that.

I’d like to have a more peaceful life from here on out, please.

Okay, moving on.

Now, I’m curious what the difference between Spatial Maneuvering and its evolved form, Dimensional Maneuvering, might be.

Let’s see…

Hmm? I dunno—it sounds kinda cool, but I don’t really get it.

Any space?

Like, air and stuff?

What, can I do a double jump now or something?

I’ll have to test this out later, too.

A lot of skills become much more useful when they evolve, after all.

Sometimes even a skill that was useless ends up suddenly becoming very handy when it evolves, so maybe Spatial Maneuvering will be like that, too.

If I can do double jumps and stuff now, that would really increase my strategic possibilities.

I think that’s about it, right?

Okay.

Overall, my skills powered up quite a bit.

I just wish I had leveled up one more time…

Then I’d get to make even bigger leaps forward.

“A dragon’s been destroyed? In the Great Elroe Labyrinth… Was this his doing? No, I don’t think so. We have an unspoken truce going on. I don’t think he would make a move like that. But what happened, then? Activate administrator’s authority… What in the world? A ruler? Of three, no less? What does this mean? I’ve never heard of this ‘Wisdom.’ Does that mean this is the work of D? But why? What is this skill? …I guess I’ll have to investigate.”

FALL

Something was wrong.

I’d had this sense of unease for a while now.

At first, it was just a vague sense at the back of my unconscious mind.

But eventually, I became fully aware of it.

Something was definitely wrong.

But I didn’t know what it was.

A feeling of unease haunted me, but I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly was causing it.

Even at the time, I knew I had to figure out what the source of that feeling was.

But I didn’t know how much I would come to regret it if I didn’t.

Summoned by my father, I go to his office.

Lately, my father has been busier than ever.

I know why, since it largely has to do with me. Apparently, the rumor that the hero is dead has spread from the battlefield and onto the streets of the kingdom.

We can’t keep Julius’s death a secret much longer.

So the Word of God church is going to make a formal announcement.

And at the same time, they would reveal the identity of the new hero.

In other words, the time when I’ll have to stand before the people as a hero has come.

That’s probably why my father wants to speak with me now.

What I don’t understand is why Sue’s been summoned as well.

Right now, Sue is walking by my side.

Why would he have Sue take a leave of absence from the academy to come to this meeting with me?

Apparently, Sue hasn’t heard anything, either.

As I ponder this question, we arrive in front of the door.

Well, I’m sure my father will explain everything shortly.

I knock on the door.

“It’s Schlain.”

“Hmm? Come in.”

“Thank you.”

I open the door and step inside.

Sue follows me without a word.

“What is it?”

Father barely looks up from writing something on his desk.

Um, that’s my line.

“You’re the one who called for us, aren’t you, Father? What is it you need?”

“Hmm? I didn’t call for you.”

Huh?

Before I knew what was happening, the situation had already begun to unfold.

I know I tried to question it aloud.

Yet the sound doesn’t leave my body.

The effects of a Wind Magic spell, Silencing, wrap around me.

Someone must have constructed and loosed the spell before I had a chance to react.

But not many people are skilled enough to do something like that. One of the only possibilities I can think of is Sue, who’s standing right next to me.

What’s going on?

I try to speak, but the sound of the air around me quashes my voice.

The difficult thing about this spell is that, instead of just erasing my voice, it creates resistance around me that cancels out any noise I make.

As long as it’s still active, unless I can forcefully interfere with the construction of the spell, my voice won’t reach anyone else.

I’m already confused, but what happens next is enough to throw my mind into complete chaos.

Sue attacks Father.

My eyes widen with shock.

What’s happening? Why?

The spell Sue used is Light Magic.

Magic I specialize in.

The ray of light shoots through my father’s forehead.

“Aaaaaah! Brother! What are you doing?!”

As it happens, Sue suddenly shrieks.

The overwhelming confusion makes my mind go blank.

“What’s going on?!”

The door flies open as my brother Cylis and his armored knight escort charge into the room.

“Brother Schlain attacked Father!”

“He did what?! Schlain, have you gone mad?!”

No!

It wasn’t me!

Why?! What’s going on?!

But my cries only disappear without a sound.

“Guards! Schlain has attacked His Majesty!”

Cylis’s voice, on the other hand, resounds loud and clear throughout the castle.

“Seize him!”

Part 2 of 8

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